1. Field of the Invention
The invention concerns a method and apparatus for customizing a facial foundation product at the point of sale to a customer.
2. The Related Art
Selection of the optimal color shade is often a customer's chief concern in purchasing a cosmetic facial product. A number of companies in the industry have sought to render easier the selection process. Clinique and Clarion have installed computers at sales counters for use by the customer. Information on color shade, oiliness and other properties of a customer's skin are punched into the computer which then determines the company's most closely matching product.
Another point of sale technique has been that of custom blending. Two major companies, Prescriptives (division of Estee Lauder) and Visage (division of Revlon) begin a sale by manually evaluating a subject's skin color. The salesperson then adjusts existing finished foundations so as to match the evaluated skin color. Unfortunately, there are many disadvantages in manual blending. The most obvious of these is that too much time is required for a match, sometimes 30-45 minutes. On many occasions there is a poor skin match, reproducibility is poor and extensive training is required of the salesperson.
Within the patent literature, U.S. Pat. No. 4,871,262 (Krauss et al) describes an automatic cosmetic dispensing system for blending selected additives into a cosmetic base. The system is intended for use at a retail establishment. A similar system is described in German Patent 41 10 299 C1 (Erdtmann), with the further element of a facial sensor. Although the aforementioned systems have advanced the art, additional refinements have become necessary to achieve commercial acceptability in terms of speed and accuracy of product delivery.
Accordingly it is an object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus that will reduce time-required for matching skin properties with a particular optimum formula.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a method and apparatus for matching skin properties with an optimal cosmetic formula in a manner that is both accurate and repeatable.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a method and apparatus for matching skin properties with an optimal cosmetic formula that requires only minimal training for the salesperson in selecting the proper product.
A still further object of the present invention is to provide a method and apparatus for matching skin properties with an optimal cosmetic formula and then rapidly and highly accurately dispensing the chosen cosmetic product.
These and other objects of the present invention will become more readily apparent through consideration of the following summary, drawing and detailed description which follow.